The construction of a transcultural pan-Africanism is a reality within reach. Cecilia Emma Wilson demonstrated this with the publication of his first essay, Afropolispublished by Editions Learned Indies in September 2022. This book immerses the reader in the world of Pan-Africanism while offering a new perspective.
Afropolis: a mini-concentrate of history and human sciences on black issues
In her essay, Cécilia Emma Wilson addresses a variety of subjects, from the question of African political currents to popular cultures such as Gospel, Reggae and Pop Culture. Through these subjects, she questions the notions of unique Africanness, versus Africanisms, weaving a web of intercultural reflection and crossed by a real ambition of global history.
The title “Afropolis” means “the city of afros” and designates the place where complex African identities are constructed, both intra and extra continental.
Go beyond the current institutional frameworks of Pan-Africanism
Ms. Wilson relied on her extensive research as well as her personal journey. The author returns to the beginnings of the Pan-Africanist movement, which date back to the end of the 18th century with the first slave revolts in Haiti, where the idea of a common African origin emerged.
It addresses different types of pan-Africanist currents, ranging from political currents to cultural movements, including their economic and spiritual implications. The book opens with a definition of these different dimensions in order to avoid any confusion.
In the first part of the book, Cécilia Emma Wilson, based on the work of Paul Gilroy, devotes a chapter entitled “The Black Atlantic, political resistance” to present in particular Ethiopianism, a movement that emerged in the end of the 18th century, as well as its best-known expression, the Rasta movement.
She then dwells on the movement of Afro-American Islam and Kemitism, which is based on the heritage of ancient Egypt and promotes “the so-called Negro-African cults”. This helps in the perspective of the “re-Africanization” of the black diasporas. The importance of this current is underlined, while castigating the risk of essentialization inherent in it.
Afropolis, a trial full of promise
So many lessons that Cécilia Emma Wilson mobilizes to propose innovative lines of thought in her essay. Throughout the pages, she manages to convince the reader that the future of Pan-Africanism as a vector of development rests on the highlighting of cultural elements specific to the African continent and its diaspora.
Who is Cecilia Emma Wilson?
Cécilia Emma Wilson is a young woman who has just turned thirty, with multiple roots: born and raised between Togo, Ghana and Benin, she is also of Brazilian origin and has had an active presence in France. Born to a father who is a documentalist at the University of Lomé in Togo and a mother who is an international civil servant, she describes herself as a diasporic African woman, with an African identity that is both anchored and uprooted.
Arrived in France at the age of eleven, victim of racism and xenophobia from an early age, and considering herself a transplanted, she is a political and trans-African pen, who explores through poetry, fiction and the essays critical questions related to African identity and its plurality.
She has embraced an internationally oriented professional path, exploring cultural exchanges between different communities. Her presence at the Sciences Po Paris doctoral school as the only African student in her research master’s in International Relations has strongly influenced her positions. She then worked at UNESCO on the development of African cultural industries, particularly fashion and cinema.
She is Togo’s youngest writer distributed at Harvard et the first woman in the country to be shortlisted for the Continental Literary Prize Voix d’Afriques RFI and JC Lattès for a manuscript.
Where to buy the book?
In Belgium at the Watermarks Library :
The book can also be consulted in the libraries of the Sorbonne, at the Media Library of the Musée du Quai Branly, and for those who are in the United States in the following universities: Harvard at Widener Library, Stanford at Green Libraryat the library of Northwestern University also.
Contact the author
Instagram : www.instagram.com/ceciliaemmawilson/
Twitter : www.twitter.com/CeciliaEmmaD/